FOREST TREES. 231 



is quite showy. Fruit ovoid, briglit red, pulp very acid, but is 

 sometimes used as a substitute for cranberries. This is the par- 

 ent of the well knowzi Guelder Eose or Snowball of gardens, in 

 which the flowers are all sterile. A handsome large shrub, 

 sometimes twenty feet high in swamps in the Northern States, 

 and westward extending to the Pacific Coast in Oi'egon and 

 northward. The remaining indigenous species are either small 

 or large shrubs, seldom over ten feet liigh, but interesting orna- 

 mental plants. 



XAXTHOXYLUM, Liuii. — PricMij Ash. 



A large genus, the species mostly tropical or sub-tropical ever- 

 green trees or shrubs, with minute monoecious or dioecious 

 flowers,with unequally pinnate leaves, and branches armed with 

 prickles or strong spmes. Bark, leaves and fruit usually 

 pungent and aromatic. The fruit of one or two Asiatic species 

 is used in China and Japan as an antidote for nearly all kinds 

 of poisons, and one as a substitute for peppei*. We have four 

 indigenous species. 



Xanthoxylnm Caribjeaiii, Lam. — Satin Wood. — Branches and 

 leaf -stalks unarmed ; leaflets five to seven, ovate-lanceolate, on 

 the fertile plant, and elliptical, obtuse, or emarginate on the 

 sterile. Seed sohtary, obovate, black and shining. Said to have 

 been discovered at Key West, Florida, by Dr. Blodget, and to 

 be a large and common tree in that region. 



X. Clava-llercnlis, Linn. — Tooth-ache Tree, Prickly Ash. — 

 Branches and leaf-stalks aiToed witli long prickles. Leaves 

 alternate, seven to nine foliolate ; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, cre- 

 nate, shining above ; panicles terminal. Fniit rather downy, 

 containing black seed. A small tree, about twenty feet high 

 in Southern Virginia to Florida, but in the West Indies it 

 gi-ows forty or more feet high. Wood yellow, close-grained, 

 and according to Sloane, has the aromatic odor of Sandal- wood. 

 The leaves, bark and fniit have a pungent aromatic taste. 



X. Pterota, H., B., K. — Bastard Iron Wood. — Branches very 

 crooked, armed with short, curved spines, and the leaf-stalks 

 winged and jointed. Leaflets seven to nine, only one half to 

 three-fourths of an inch long ; obovate and crenate above the 

 middle. Flowers in axillary clusters. Fruit about the size of a 

 grain of black pepper, containing one smooth dark-brown seed. 

 A small shi-ub or tree, with very hard, yellow wood. Southern 

 Florida, west to Texas, also south to Brazil. 



